The group cannot deliver as much as the customers order.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Munich The chip boom will continue to drive Infineon in the new fiscal year that has just begun. The semiconductor manufacturer announced on Wednesday that the operating margin will climb to 21 percent. The Dax group from Munich has not been so profitable for a long time.
The chip manufacturer benefits from enormous demand and can thus enforce higher prices. “We are more powerful than ever,” said CEO Reinhard Ploss. “In view of the continuing high demand for semiconductors for the energy-efficient and connected world, we expect a strong financial year 2022.”
Sales will increase by around 15 percent to around 12.7 billion euros. At the same time, the Dax group wants to invest significantly more. At the same time, the dividend is expected to climb from 22 to 27 cents. In the financial year that ended on September 30th, revenues climbed by almost 30 percent to a good eleven billion euros, as forecast. The operating margin has reached 18 percent.
For Ploss, the last full fiscal year at the top of Infineon began at the beginning of November. The electrical engineer has been running the group since 2012 and will be leaving at the end of 2022.
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Ploss plans to spend 2.4 billion euros on machines and factories in the new financial year; that is 800 million more than in the past fiscal year. It corresponds to around a fifth of the expected sales and is well above the target of 13 percent. It is about taking advantage of growth opportunities, the group justified the high investments.
Infineon boss asks for patience
For months now, Infineon has not been able to deliver as much as customers would like. The acute delivery bottlenecks are arguably the company’s biggest problem. “The supply chain is completely empty. We live from hand to mouth, ”said Ploss on Tuesday at the Handelsblatt Auto Summit 2021.“ Capacities and supply chains have to be built up first. It is essential that it is missing there. The bottlenecks will clearly extend into the year 2022. “
However, the deficiency can only be partially resolved through your own investments. Because the Munich-based company does not get enough goods from contract manufacturers, the so-called foundries. Above all, there is a lack of capacity for more mature technologies, complained CEO Ploss in the summer. The company relies on contract manufacturers such as TSMC, Samsung and Globalfoundries to invest more. However, Infineon must also expand its own plants in order to be able to meet the increased demand.
Investors are enthusiastic about Infineon. The papers are at their highest level in two decades. Most recently, the Munich also left the Dax behind. In the past four weeks, the chip manufacturer’s share price rose by around 17 percent, while the leading German index gained just under six percent. In the meantime, Infineon has either reached or even exceeded the price target of many analysts.
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